Chapter 13 Flashcards
Biological Anthropology
A subdiscipline of anthropology concerned with the biological origins, ecology, evolution, and diversity of humans and other primates. This term is increasingly preferred to physical anthropology, as many in the field now uncomfortably associate this original name coined by Aleš Hrdlička) with the ways in which questions of human variation were studied in decades past and the sociohistorical context that made anthropology problematic before 1950
Human diversity
Group differences involving variation in biology, physiology, body chemistry, behavior, and culture.
Race
The identification of a group based on a perceived distinctiveness that makes that group more similar to each other than they are to others outside the group. This may be based on cultural differences, genetic parentage, physical characteristics, behavioral attributes, or something arbitrarily and socially constructed. As a social or demographic category, perceptions of “race” can produce effects that have real and serious consequences for different groups of people. This is despite the fact that biological anthropologists and geneticists have demonstrated that all humans are genetically homogenous and that more differences can be found within populations as opposed to between them in the overall apportionment of human biological variation.
Ethnicity
A complex term used commonly in an interchangeable way with the term race see below).
Racism
Any action or belief that discriminates against someone based on perceived differences in race or ethnicity, and the characteristics, qualities, or abilities believed to be specific to a race that is inferior to another in some way.
Prejudice
An unjustified attitude toward an individual or group not based on reason, whether that is positive and showing preference for one group of people over another or negative and resulting in harm or injury to others.
Why is it important to study human diversity?
It helps with understanding ourselves and evolution
After you read the definition of race on the top of page 2, write about what aspects of that definition surprise you? Which ones did you expect?
In an ideal world, how might the work of anthropologists reduce violence, prejudice and even war?
This is how the role of the biological anthropologist becomes crucial in the public sphere, as we may be able to debunk myths surrounding human diversity and shed light on how human variation is actually distributed worldwide for the non-anthropologists around us
The author argues that people can’t be divided into discrete races. What is his evidence for this?
ecause most traits instead vary on a continuous basis and human biology is, in fact, very homogenous compared to the greater genetic variation we observe in other closely related species.
The Book of Gates
Ancient Egypt. Dated to the New Kingdom between 1550 B.C.E. and 1077 B.C.E. In one part of this tome dedicated to depictions of the underworld, scribes used pictures and hieroglyphics to illustrate a division of Egyptian people into the four categories known to them at the time: the Aamu Asiatics), the Nehesu Nubians), the Reth
Egyptians), and the Themehu Libyans). Showcased the origins of race.
Pliny the Elder
Roman philosopher who wrote about different groupings of people in his encyclopedia Naturalis Historia.
Naturalis Historia
Pliny’s the Elder’s encyclopedia about different groups of people.
Bible
the Bible, where it is written that all humankind descends from one of three sons of Noah: Shem the ancestor to all olive-skinned Asians), Japheth the ancestor to pale- skinned Europeans), and Ham the ancestor to darker-skinned Africans). Similar to the Ancient Egyptians, these distinctions were based on behavioral traits and skin color.
“The Great Chain of Being”
Finally, there is also the “Great Chain of Being,” conceived by ancient Greek philosophers like Plato 427‒348 B.C.E.) and Aristotle 384‒322 B.C.E.). They played a key role in laying the foundations of empirical science, whereby observations of everything from animals to humans were noted with the aim of creating taxonomic categories.
Plato
Greek philosopher
Aristotle
Greek philosopher who expressed the belief that certain people are inherently or genetically) more instinctive rulers, while others are more natural fits for the life of a worker or slave.
Write one or two major conclusions the Egyptians, the Romans, early Christians and Greek philosophers came to about humans and race.
each of these groups were made of a distinctive category of people, distinguishable by their skin color, place of origin, and even behavioral traits.
What limitations did these societies have when they drew their conclusions?
Genetics. Both behavioral traits and physical traits are coded for by multiple genes each, and how we exhibit those traits based on our genetics can vary significantly even between individuals of the same population.
Consider what you have already learned about the origins of humans. What conclusions have simply been debunked by later scientific discoveries?
Scientific Revolution
A period between the 1400s and 1600s when substantial shifts occurred in the social, technological, and philosophical sense, when a scientific method based on the collection of empirical evidence through experimentation was emphasized and inductive reasoning used to test hypotheses and interpret their results.
Carl Linnaeus
the author of Systema Naturae 1758), in which he classified all plants and animals he could observe under the first formalized naming system known as binomial nomenclature
Systema Naturae
a book that held the first classifications of all plants and animals he could observe under the first formalized naming system known as binomial nomenclature
Binomial nomenclature
how all organisms can be named by their genus and species, such as Homo sapiens or Pan troglodytes
Essentialism
a concept which dictates that there are a unique set of characteristics that organisms of a specific kind must have—organisms would fall outside taxonomic categorizations if they lacked any of the required criteria.
How are conclusions drawn during the Scientific Revolution likely different from the conclusions drawn by earlier societies?
The conclusions and claims they came to, consciously or subconsciously, often fit such an age when the superiority of European cultures over others was a pervasive idea throughout these scientists’ social and political lives.
Age of Discovery
A period between the late 1400s and late 1700s when European explorers and ships sailed extensively across the globe in pursuit of new trading routes and territorial conquest.
Race
The identification of a group based on a perceived distinctiveness that makes that group more similar to each other than they are to others outside the group. This may be based on cultural differences, genetic parentage, physical characteristics, behavioral attributes, or something arbitrarily and socially constructed. As a social or demographic category, perceptions of “race” can produce effects that have real and serious consequences for different groups of people. This is despite the fact that biological anthropologists and geneticists have demonstrated that all humans are genetically homogenous and that more differences can be found within populations as opposed to between them in the overall apportionment of human biological variation.
Comte de Buffon
Naturalist who believe that all people have a single origin, but they also believed that differences in environment could lead to biological changes between different groups of people
Johann Blumenbach
Naturalist who believe that all people have a single origin, but they also believed that differences in environment could lead to biological changes between different groups of people
Othering
In postcolonial anthropology, we now understand “othering” to mean any action by someone or some group that establishes a division between “us” and “them” in relation to other individuals or populations. This could be based on linguistic or cultural differences, and it has largely been based on external characteristics throughout history.
Carl Linnaeus made some contributions to anthropology that are relevant today, but other “contributions” are not. Describe first his relevant contributions, and then those that have since been proven incorrect.
When European people came to places like the Americas they encountered people who were notably different than any they had seen before. How did they explain these differences?
Building on the idea of species and “subspecies,” natural historians of this time invented the term race, from the French rasse meaning “local strain.” The idea behind this terminology was rooted in the observation that geography plays a significant role in producing the biological traits we observe today
What did J.F Blumenbach believe about human origins.
Buffon believed erroneously that human “subspecies” were “degenerated” or “transformed” varieties of an ancestral Caucasian or European race. According to them, the Caucasian cranial dimensions were the least changed over human evolutionary time, while the other skull forms represented geographic variants of this “original.”
Polygenetic
Having many different ancestries, as in older theories about human origins that involved multiple traditional groupings of humans evolving concurrently in different parts of the world before they merged into one species through interbreeding and/or intergroup warfare. These earlier suggestions have now been overwhelmed by insurmountable evidence for a single origin of the human species in Africa see the “Out-of-Africa model”).
Monogenetic
Pertaining to the idea that the origin of a species is situated in one geographic region or time as opposed to polygenetic).
Samuel George Morton
was a scholar who had a large role in 1800s scientific racism. By measuring cranial size and shape, he calculated that “Caucasians,” on average, have greater cranial volumes than other groups, such as the Native Americans and “Negros.”
